stakes situation now in a presidenti campaign that people would have debt. newt gingrich will have some debt. hala? >> thanks, mark preston live in des moines, iowa. this reminder for you, tuesday night join us for the country's first real votes and a true test for gop candidates. america's choice 2012 live coverage of the iowa caucuses begins tuesday night, 7:00 p.m. on cnn. that's going to do it for me. let's go to studio seven live, i let's go to studio seven live, i should say with randi kaye. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com hi. live from studio seven, i'm randi kaye. the political landscape is shifting for the republican presidential candidates. just five days before the iowa caucuses. a new cnn time orc poll shows rick santorum's political fortunes rising while support for newt gingrich is falling. mitt romney leads the poll 25% of likely caucus goers say they

support him. he's followed by ron paul at 22%. rick santorum is now third with 16%. newt gingrich is at 14%. michele bachmann is on the campaign trail in des moines right now, a day after one of her high profile advisers defected. bachmann is likely to face questions about the decision by state senator ken sorenson to jump ship and throw his support behind ron paul. we're keying an eye on bachmann's media event and we'll take you there live for some of the q and a session. he may be the front-runner but mitt romney isn't predicting how he will do in the iowa caucuses. he started the day in cedar falls talking about the job and the economy. speaking with wolf blitzer he responded to kplats from newt gingrich about attack ads. >> i don't know why he's so angry. look, this is a campaign about the things we believe in. i believe the country's being led in a very unfortunate and

destructive way by a president that doesn't really understand our economy or america. i can get america working again. that's why i'm running. activists say this video posted on youtube shows syrian security forces firing on protesters in a damascus suburb today. cnn cannot authentically verify the integrity of the video. we spoke with one journalist there who we are not naming for security reasons who says syrian cities have been under military siege for days. >> they are trying to randomly put fear into the people and to this neighborhood in order to get them quiet and not getting out of the streets to demonstrate. >> the arab league tells cnn it has 75 monitors in syria and more are expected in the coming days.

somber music played over loud speakers as thousands gathered to memorialize north korea's kim jong il for a second day at pyongyang. a state orchestrated ceremony once again proclaimed his 20 something son kim jong un the supreme leader. kim ruled the secretive nation for 17 years. he reportedly died of a heart attack two weeks ago. the u.s. is warning iran not to disrupt a key oil shipping channel. the obama administration describes iran's threat to block the strait of hormuz as saber rattling. the administration says it will do what it must to keep the strait open. in 200915 million barrels of oil passed through the strait every day. any disruption could affect how much you pay for gasoline. there may be criminal charges in the country's worst offshore oil disaster. the spill killed 11 workers in the gulf of mexico. now "the wall street journal" reports prosecutors are preparing a case against some bp

employees. charges could include providing false information in federal documents. take a look at this. these are priests fighting each other in church. about 60 priests from rival denominations started hitting each other. the church of the nativity in bethlehem. palestinian police quickly broke up the fight and no one was seriously injured. hard work pays off. that's how rick santorum explains his sudden surge in the polls in iowa just five days before the caucuses. santorum has been pounding the pavement for months visiting all 99 counties in iowa. he has stops in three cities today alone. let's bring in cnn political director mark preston to talk much more about santorum's rise. mark, is santorum right, is it all about hard work? >> reporter: well, you know, randi, let me tell you this. back in june of 2010 i was here

in des moines with rick santorum. he was speaking to a republican state party meeting. there must have been 600 people in the room. i've got to tell you, at the beginning of his speech nobody was listening to him. they were more concerned about eating the food on the table. about ten minutes into the speech though you couldn't hear anything. they were august mesmerized by rick santorum talking about how his faith has driven him in public life. we've seen in this new cnn poll that in fact that speech perhaps back in 2010 has caught on with the caucus goers here in iowa. he has risen 11% in the last three weeks between cnn's poll that we conducted earlier this month and the new poll numbers that have just come out yesterday. it shows that rick santorum now is at 16%, which is huge right now for rick santorum. it shows that he is breaking away from the pack and that he is joining some of the front-runners. is he nowhere near the top but it shows that he's a viable candidate. just a couple of hours ago he was on the campaign trail and let's hear what he had to say

about where he stands now in the race. >> iowa provides the spark. there's plenty of tinder on the ground that will start burning in these other states, and if we become the clear alternative, as i hope we will be in the caucus, the conservative alternative to mitt romney, there will be a lot of folks who will rally to our side in new hampshire. we'll have, i believe, a strong showing there. i'm not suggesting we'll win new hampshire. i haven't run one television ad in new hampshire. i think we'll get quite a bump and get a strong showing there. then go down to south carolina and do even better. >> reporter: there you have rick santorum's strategy, hoping to get a strong showing here in iowa. if he comes in third place here in iowa, that would be a huge win for him. perhaps propel him into new hampshire. perhaps he could do okay in new hampshire. gets him down to south carolina. south carolina a lot of born again evangelical voters down

there. that would resonate well with rick santorum's message. his problem now is he still has five days right now to try to maintain that lead. randi? >> speaking of problems, it seems as though looking at the poll numbers, you look at santorum, he's up. newt gingrich has a problem, he's down. does santorum's surge come at newt gingrich's expense, do you think? >> reporter: it certainly does. right now newt gingrich is dropping like a rock in the pond. as rick santorum is rising up. who else is in trouble from these numbers, we don't have them up there on the screen, we can't build a graphic that big, it shows that rick perry and michele bachmann have not moved in the last three weeks from cnn's previous poll around the 1st of december to where we are today. when rick santorum is talking about competing as the conservative alternative to mitt romney, he's talking about competing for the voters that rick perry and michele bachmann are vying for. that's who rick santorum is focusing on now. he's clearly benefitting from newt gingrich's fall. >> maybe as you said if he

doesn't have a good showing there in iowa he was going to pack his bags and go home. maybe he's not ready to do so just yet. mark preston, thank you very much. this reminder, tune in next week for the country's first vote in the presidential race. america's choice 2012. live coverage of the iowa caucuses begins tuesday night, january 3rd at 7:00 eastern time. and we're just hours away from a critical deadline that could make someone a multi-millionaire. $6.5 million iowa lottery jackpot will expire today at 4:00 if the winner doesn't come forward. if no one produces the winning ticket, it would be the second multi-million dollar lotto jackpot that would go unclaimed this week. a $77 million jackpot expired. the numbers were drawn exactly one year ago. so we want to know what would

you do with $16.5 million since we know you wouldn't let that ticket go unclaimed. we composed your thouts on my facebook page. that is facebook.com/randikcnn. we'll have your comments to share later this hour. here's a rundown of some of the stories we're following. first, on the front lines in syria where snipers rule the streets. iran threatens to block a major shipping channel for oil. we'll look at how it could impact gas prices here. check out this video. a man goes on a rampage in a colorado neighborhood running into the backs of people's cars. how's your relationship with your mother? why your answer could have a whole lot to do with whether you are overweight. later a store where new yorkers can roll their own cigarettes is shutting down. >> reporter: in a city where smokers in public can be shot on site, a store opened where

people can make their own cigarettes. >> i said, wow. why didn't i think about it? [ female announcer ] in the grip of arthritis, back, or back joint pain?

aspercreme breaks the grip, with maximum-strength medicine and no embarrassing odor. break the grip of pain with aspercreme. more violence on the streets of syria. activists say this video posted on youtube shows syrian security forces firing on protesters in a damascus suburb. we can't confirm the authenticity of the video. ash leaders travel through damascus. they tell cnn a permanent team will remain in place. foreign reporters are not allowed into sir yeah one journalist did manage to get inside the flashpoint city of homs. not naming the journalist for

his safety, but over the next few days cnn will be showcasing his remarkable stories. here is his first report on snipers targeting anyone who dares to walk in the street. >> reporter: the snipers are on basically every main street. they have checkpoints on both sides. snipers would shoot everybody who was basically crossing this street between 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 in the morning. this is an unofficial curfew. the activists told me, i have to meet this woman there. this is the mother of a victim who got shot when she was pregnant in the seventh month. it was during the morning when she wants to go out for shopping.

>> translator: her brother tried for half an hour to go over the walls and roofs to get to her, but he didn't manage to reach her. finally they managed to pull her away, but it took another half an hour to get her to my house. >> reporter: you arrive at a situation, you arrive at a scene where 1/2 hour ago somebody got shot. 30 minutes later people are crossing very normally the street. me crossing the street, i've been feeling basically, literally i've been feeling that somebody's aiming -- the sniper's aiming on me and it's up to him if he's going to pull the trigger or not. i came to this junction and i realized that somebody wanted to cross the street with a huge bag of cigarettes so i could hear the snipers shooting and he was not able to cross the street.

the bag of cigarettes were in the middle of the street. it was, again, one of these very impressive scenes where people have been very happily, almost like a sport challenge to get the cigarette bags out from the sniper range. they've been happy when they could. >> translator: we need to cross the street to buy bread and other food but the snipers have surrounded this area. it's a huge danger. >> reporter: and they started to throw the bread because they were not able to cross. so everything they needed on the other side, they throw over the streets. at the point of no return has already crossed. the people know there are no options. they started to up rise and so many blocks, so many people got killed already. when they stopped to go out to

the streets, the regime going to come back and they're going to get killed anyway. >> some areas of syria have been hit hard by violence while others have been untouched. the latest threat from iran prompts a warning from the u.s. we'll explain how all of this could affect the price you pay for gasoline. also, for all you prokrast at this nators out there. there are three simple things you can do today to save yourself some money come tax time. we'll have them for you. tissue box (whispering): he said nasal congestion... nyquil: i heard him. anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't. what is it about taking a first step that we find so compelling? is it because taking a step represents hope? or triumph? at genworth, we believe in taking small steps every day

to keep your promises, protect what matters, and prepare for a secure financial future. no matter where you want to go, one step at a time is the only way to get there. go to genworth.com/promises.

welcome back. i promised you three simple things you can do this week to save money on taxes. get those donations to charities

in the mail. go online to make a donation today. don't forget you can clean out some clutter and take those items to a donation center. if you have the extra cash pay your january mortgage early. deduct that extra interest in 2011. if you have property tax bills due in january, you can pay that early and deduct this year. and you can stash some cash in a 520 college savings plan by the end of the year. for more tips on cutting your tax bill just go to forbes.com. the u.s. is warning iran not to disrupt a key oil shipping channel. the obama administration describes iran's threat to block the strait of hormuz as saber-rattling. an administration official says the u.s. will do what it must to keep the strait open. mid east experts say that's the right approach to take. >> having the straits closed would be a disaster. i don't think any u.s. president could let that stand. alison kosik joins us from the new york stock exchange now. alison, i bet a lot of people are watching this.

how could this threat from iran affect oil prices and ultimately prices at the pump? >> yeah. i mean, if this did happen, that iran did follow through on its threat, yeah, you'd see gas prices go through the roof because you'd see oil prices go through the roof as well. but what's happening today is you're not seeing that concern play out in the markets. oil trade jergs not too worried about it right now. in fact oil prices are down slightly below $90 a barrel. i did speak with an oil analyst. if iran carries through with this threat he says it would drive oil prices to unpredictable levels. he went as far as to say that it would throw the global economy into a deep depression. he says because consumers in the end wouldn't be able to afford it. that would lead into economic activity. once again, this is the worst case scenario. he doesn't see that actually happening. randi? >> when you look at this though, if iran is threatening to close the strait, wouldn't that actually damage iran's economy as well?

don't they export oil? >> exactly. iran is a huge exporter of oil. in fact, iran is the fourth biggest oil exporter. closing the strait would obviously hurt iran in the end. you think about it, china is iran's biggest customer and guess how iran gets that oil to china? through the strait of hormuz. so, yes, other exporters use the strait as well. saudi arabia in particular. he said no way would the saudis just sit back while iran threatens its bread and butter. that's also why he's thinking the iranians will not cary through with their threat. >> thank you very much. so there is a four:00 p.m. deadline today to claim the eye would he wa lottery prize. they're hoping they do come forward. we want to know what would you do with $16.5 million since we know, of course, that you wouldn't let the ticket go unclaimed. you can post your thoughts on my facebook page.

we'll have some of your comments later this hour. checking stories our affiliates are covering across the country. marine who managed to avoid getting shot in afghanistan and iraq is shot three times in a robbery in south florida. carl trenger actually took the bull jets out with his own fingers. the good news,'s doing okay now. >> i go to iraq and afghanistan multiple times and i haven't been shot or blown up and i'm here at home in florida and here i am dragged away in an ambulance with gunshot wounds. check it out this crazy video out of colorado. this is not an accident. it's a guy going on a rampage trying to find cars just to run into. he totaled this woman's car and hit five others. he even tried to hit a few pedestrians. luckily no one was hurt. a helmet cam captures a firefighter in frigid, fargo,ed

inned in north dakota. it will help train off duty firefighters and give the public a better view of how chaotic emergency situations are. that is one lucky doggy. want to fight the battle of the bulge? when is the last time you spoke with your mother? a new study links obesity with how you bonded with mom as a kimptd i'll talk to jeff gardier about it. what is that? it's you! it's me? alright emma, i know it's not your favorite but it's time for your medicine, okay? you ready? one, two, three. [ both ] ♪ emma, emma bo-bemma ♪ banana-fana-fo-femma ♪ fee-fi-fo-femma ♪ em-ma very good sweety, how do you feel?

good. yeah? you did a really good job, okay? [ female announcer ] to nurses everywhere, thank you, from johnson & johnson. [ female announcer ] to nurses everywhere, what is it about taking a first step that we find so compelling? is it because taking a step represents hope? or triumph? at genworth, we believe in taking small steps every day to keep your promises, protect what matters, and prepare for a secure financial future. no matter where you want to go, one step at a time is the only way to get there. go to genworth.com/promises. i took some steep risks in my teens. i'd never ride without one now. and since my doctor prescribed lipitor, i won't go without it for my high cholesterol and my risk of heart attack. why kid myself? diet and exercise weren't lowering my cholesterol enough. now i'm eating healthier, exercising more, taking lipitor. numbers don't lie. my cholesterol's stayed down. lipitor is fda approved to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke

in patients who have heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. it's backed by over 19 years of research. [ female announcer ] lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women who are nursing, pregnant or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications, or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. [ man ] still love that wind in my face! talk to your doctor. don't kid yourself about the risk of heart attack and stroke. if lipitor's been working for you, stay with it. lipitor may be available for as little as $4 a month with the lipitor co-pay card. terms and conditions apply. learn more at lipitorforyou.com. here's a rundown of some of the stories that we're working on. next the family matter that's raising eyebrows. how a child's relationship with mom could lead to obesity. then on the campaign trail a high level bachmann adviser trades side and backs a

different presidential contender. later from medical march develops to cell phone safety dr. sanjay gupta looks back at some of the top medical stories of 2011. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. [ male announcer ] new glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes.

we want to go beyond the headlines now in a fascinating story about another possible cause for obesity, your relationship with your mother. a study published in the journal

"pediatrics" has found only 13% of teens who had close bonds with their mothers became obese whereas 25% of teens who had a low quality relationship became obese. that is two times the rate of obesity. why would that be? psychologist jeff gardier joins me from new york. jeff, what do you make of this study? >> i think it follows what we've known as far as bonds between mother and child. if there is not a healthy bonding, an emotional, stable relationship in the very early years, especially not going past the toddler years, then that child will have issues, may have issues with stress and how they handle stress. >> so what exactly is happening in the brain of these children that affects their emotions and their responses to stress? >> well, what we believe is happening, according to this ohio state study, is that simply the children who do not have a healthy bonding with their

mothers do not develop the brain functions that allow them to be able to deal with stress better. the hormones are not released properly. they have issues with emotion, the sleep wake cycle, appetite and metabolic issues. all of those things cause a child or person to gain weight. >> if we had interventions maybe to improve the relationships and the bonds between the mother and child, maybe a more sensitive mom, would that help? >> absolutely that would help. that's what the study is saying. let's not use this as a way to blame mothers for causing their children to be obese, let's take this as a signal that we need to do more to help mothers, more to help children, have programs that are out there that stress to the mothers and pediatricians need to do this, stress to the mothers how important it is to be in contact with their children in a constant way instead of leaving them with caregivers, how to touch them

more, how to coo with them more, how to verbalize with them more so that they can have more of these emotional bonds and therefore learn to deal with stress better so they don't get into the emotional eating and not getting enough rest and all of those things may cause them, in fact, to gain weight. >> so it sounds like that it may not really be the child's fault for overeating if these studies hold true, that the relationship between the mother and the child is definitely to blame here? >> well, what we do know is, again, we don't want to look at the issue of blame, we just need to know how important it is in those very formative years for the child to be close to the mother. if that doesn't happen, this is yet another factor that may cause our children to be obese. of course we have to look at the genetic issues that also cause obesity as well as sometimes mothers may love their kids so much or a little bit too much that they do the wrong things, such as feeding them all the time as a form of reinforcement

or trying to keep them quiet. this is great information for mothers, and certainly we need to encourage mothers to be closer to their children and love them in the proper way so that they don't end up being at risk for obesity. >> we've been talking quite a bit here about young children, but i bet there are some over weight adults who might be watching and saying, well, is it too late for me? if i had a bad relationship and i'm overwait, is there anything i can do now even if i didn't have a good relationship to break the cycle? >> that is the issue. breaking the cycle in itself. a lot of the parents perhaps had bad up bringings and therefore they act that out on their children. people now, adults who have had very poor relationships with their parents, what they need to do is break the cycle. break their cycle with their own children but to reach out to their parents knowing that their parents were emotionally damaged. of course, they can take care of themselves physically. a combination of all of those

things can begin to reverse the obesity. we know that, that there is always hope in these human interactions and relationships between parent and child. >> fascinating study. fascinating conversation. jeff gardere, thank you very much. michele bachmann loses one of her top campaign advisers to rival ron paul. bachmann accuses the ex-adviser of selling out. we'll hear why he jumped ship.

what is it about taking a first step that we find so compelling? is it because taking a step represents hope? or triumph? at genworth, we believe in taking small steps every day to keep your promises, protect what matters, and prepare for a secure financial future. no matter where you want to go,

one step at a time is the only way to get there. go to genworth.com/promises.

bitterly cold wind chills are making teeth chatter. chad myers, we're talking temperatures, what, that are 20 below zero or so? how bad is it. >> yeah. wind chill is blowing out there. this is the first of a couple that will affect the midwest. one will affect chicago on sunday. the good news is for all of you going to the ball drop in new york city, temperatures there for this weekend for saturday night when anderson cooper, we'll be there having a party, about 42 degrees at ball drop time. that's fantastic compared to where we've been sometimes this time of year. some cloud cover. slight snow showers across parts of michigan. the next story is how much rain will come on shore. rain all the way up and down from northern california. the connection all the way back to hawaii. we call it the pineapple express. flurries across parts of the midwest. cool in the southeast although a lot of bowl games will be going

on. 5500 airplanes in the sky right now, randi. most on time. a couple of delays, houston. that just went away. i imagine there's a little bit of lingering, five or ten minutes. san francisco, 1:05 minutes. i don't see any significant big snowstorms coming up for anybody across the country here for the next few days. that's great news because people coming in and out trying to get back home from christmas vacation, maybe staying around for new year's eve. >> chad, thank you very much. appreciate that. we do have some news just in to cnn related to the u.s. sale of defense equipment to saudi arabia. brianna keilar has more on this for us. brianna, what can you tell us? >> reporter: hi there, randy. we just got word from the white house that a $30 billion sale of f-15 fighter jets to saudi arabia has been authorized. i want to caution because this is something that congress approved all the way last year. this is something that was

expected as part of a deal that congress approved in 2010. this will include, according to the white house, 84 new fighter jets, upgrades for 70 more fighter jets. saudi arabia is someone that the u.s. looks to in its opposition to iran and its efforts towards building a nuclear weapon or apparently building a nuclear weapon. there were some when this deal was approved last year who were worried about really what this meant in terms of israel's security. the white house putting out a statement from the principal deputy press secretary, josh ernest saying that this is important for the regional security of the middle east that saudi arabia's aided in this way. >> thank you for the update on that. a shakeup in michele bachmann's campaign staff. paul steinhauser is live from des moines, iowa where the caucuses are just five days away. paul, bachmann's adviser left her for ron paul. she's accusing him of going

where the money is, but what's he saying about this decision? >> reporter: yeah, he's saying and the ron paul campaign is saying, not at all. we didn't do it for the money. i tell you, randi, this is the hot story. we're five days a wampt here's how it played out. the guy's name is ken sorensen. not a household name. in iowa kind of influential. state senator. he was bachmann's top surrogate in this state, chairman of her campaign. whenever you saw her, you often saw him. in fact, yesterday we saw the two of them together. then last night, guess what, he shows up at a ron paul rally and endorses ron paul. take a listen to what he said. >> tonight's a little tough for me. i have been severing as michele bachmann's state chair over the last year. while michele has fought for my conservative values, i believe we're at a turge point. when the republican

establishment is going to be coming at him in the next few days, i thought it was my duty to come to his aid. >> reporter: but it gets better. moments after that happened michele bachmann's campaign basically, as you said, randi, said sorenson got paid off by the ron paul campaign. they say, no. he says, no, it didn't happen that way. one of bachmann's top campaign aids this morning says that's not true. he's sticking with bachmann but he doesn't believe that story as well. bachmann, she's sticking by her guns and story. take a listen to what she said right here in des moines about an hour ago. >> the last time i spoke with ken sorenson he told me he was on board our campaign. that's the last time i spoke to him. >> reporter: well, we'll see where it goes from here. as you know, she's in the single digits here. she needs a strong finish in iowa to continue on. good reporting on the story from peter ham by and shannon travis. >> paul, let's talk about newt gingrich a little bit. he's been blasting mitt romney

over the negative ads by the so-called super pacs. how's he responding to the complaints by gingrich? >> romney's been saying, i can't control this super pac. it's an independent group. that's his stock answer. that group, it's called restore our future. they went up this morning with a brand new ad hitting gingrich. take a listen. >> freddie mac helped cause the economic collapse but gingrich cashed in. they paid newt $30,000 an hour, $1.6. gingrich not only teemed up with nancy pelosi on global warming, but together they co sponsored a bill that gave $60 billion a year -- >> reporter: just a little taste of these ads that gingrich says are hurting his campaign. we've seen his numbers drop in our most recent cnn poll. >> going in the wrong direction for him. what about president obama, latino voters certainly played an important role in his election. can he hang on to their support

in 2012? >> reporter: you are so right on that one. they were crucial to his victory back in 2008 in the presidential elections. exit polls indicate he took two-thirds of the vote. a new poll by the pew research center indicates if there was a hypothetical election between president obama and mitt romney, very possible. the president would grab about the same percentage, about two-thirds of the vote which is good news for president obama. he's going to need strong numbers of hispanics if he is going win re-election. >> paul steinhauser with a whole bunch of good stuff from des moines, iowa. this reminder, tune in next week for the country's first vote in the presidential race. america's choice 2012. live coverage of the iowa caucuses begins tuesday night, january 3rd, at 7:00 eastern. throughout the year we witnessed medical advances. we rooted for a congresswoman's recovery after she was shot in the head. we learned more about football hits and related brain injuries. we'll take a look at how the top medical stories of 2011 affected us.

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we want to highlight medical stories that impacted our lives this year. we witnessed a devastating sue nam 34i in japan, saw challenges to our health care laws. chief medical correspondent, dr. sanjay gupta has more. >> reporter: january 8th, gunfire at a campaign event for congresswoman gabrielle giffords. six people are killed. >> is anybody injured? did you say gabrielle giffords

was hit? >> she's hit. she's breathing. i could have a pulse. >> reporter: the congresswoman is hit in the head but she survives. >> when you say that trajectory of where one hole was and where the other hole was, i was like, oh, my gosh. however -- >> reporter: wait a minute, because it was so far apart? >> yeah. it wasn't little. it went through a lot. >> reporter: 3.5 months later the first public steps in the congresswoman's remarkable recovery. in 2011 i tried to put a spotlight on big hits in the brain. finding growing evidence that football puts young people at serious risk and professional players as well. in february former chicago bear safety david duerson committed suicide. he left his brain to scientific research. when the findings came back, his brain had telltale signs of chronic injury. stories like this rolled in, the nfl put in new rules to try and protect its players.

then it was march and i witnessed the after math of an astonishing disaster in japan. our first hours on the ground were just scary.>> reporter: so we are going move at this point. these seem like official warnings now. >> reporter: there was no tsunami. we were safe but more than 16,000 people lost their lives. thanks to leaks from a crippled nuclear plant, the district around fukushima will be unlivable for years to come. in may the world health organization said cell phones might, might cause brain cancer. brain scans can actually spot the impact of radiation from phones, and some studies found a cancer link. it doesn't mean cell phones are dangerous, but to be on the safe side, i always say, use an earpiece. july brought questions about cancer in 911 just ahead of the tenth anniversary of the attacks. federal authorities say there's not strong evidence connecting

dust from the fallen twin towers and cancer. first responders with cancer would not receive special compensation, but just a month later a big study of new york city firefighters found the opposite. >> we found a 19% increase in all cancers in our exposed firefighters as compared to our non-exposed firefighters. >> reporter: the decision on compensation could still be reversed. in october the spotlight landed on the psa test to detect prostate cancer, a test undergone by more than 20 million men each year. a federal advisory panel said the psa test just isn't worth it. and then november. exciting news of a stem cell break through. two studies using infusions of a patient's own stem cells. one found the cells could regrow dead heart tissue once thought to be impossible. the other study found the cells could reverse heart failure. one story that was left unresolved, the fight over the

health care law. critics call it obama care. >> and i've said time and again, obama care is bad news. it's unconstitutional, it costs way too much money, a trillion dollars, and if i'm president of the united states i will repeal it for the american people. >> reporter: in november the supreme court agreed to decide the law's fate next year. i'm dr. sanjay gupta, cnn reporting. and this weekend sanjay takes a look back at the top medical stories that caught his attention and changed all of our lives in 2011. sanjay gupta md this saturday and sunday at 7:30 a.m. eastern right here on cnn. checking stories from across the country now. a man who lost his family when a marine corps jet crashed into his house has been awarded $17 million from the government. the crash happened three years ago in san diego. his wife, two infant daughters, and mother-in-law were all killed. the pilot ejected before impact. military documents showed he

tried to steer the plane away from the home. in new market, tennessee, three trapped miners were rescued after they were cut off by fire and smoke 800 feet below the ground. they're fine. 51 others got out of the zinc mine when the fire broke out yesterday. and in some of florida's biggest why? just too many people. the magic kingdom and animal kingdom at walt disneyworld had to cut off visitors, including at le ggoland. tournumber two most piratedm of 2011 was a fan favorite at the box office and the internet. take a look.

>> stu, come out, get up. we got a situation. >> yes, "the hangover part ii" had 8.8 million downloads. the top pirated movies of 201 after the break. when you have diabetes...

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before the break we listed the top pirated films of 2011 and here is number one -- ♪ >> "fast five." it is the number one pirated film with 9.2 million downloads. it began as a novel idea but a new york stone owner who wanted to cater to a specific clientele -- the smoker. his let, let the customers roll their own smokes. the concept caught on quickly, but the make it yourself great shop is being snuffed out. >> reporter: you could call this story the mirage of staten island.

in a city where smokers in public can be shot on site, a store where people can make their own cigarettes. by rolling their own, smokers said their cigarettes were healthier, tasted better and -- >> you can't beat price. so a half-an-hour out of my week really doesn't turn me away at all. if anything, it is fine. i just roll my carton and i go. >> reporter: how big a price break? >> in the city of new york, the five boroughs, it is $14 to $15 per pack of cigarettes. approximately $4 here. >> reporter: prepackages cigarettes in new york, tobacco makers pass costs on o for treated smoke related illnesses. the shop says they don't actually sell cigarettes but the paper tubes and a lower taxed loose tobacco to fill them. customers themselves use the machines to assemble or roll

them into finished form. business boomed. the owners opened another store and planned further expansion. then new york city got wind of the smoke house and challenged the concept. new york mayor michael bloomberg an has an outspoken critic of secondhand smoke and has successfully pushed for a smoking ban throughout new york. >> the stores are really no different than a salad bar. when you go to a salad bar, they don't sell you a salad assembly process. they sell you a salad. that's what these stores are not selling you a cigarette assembly process, they're selling you cigarettes. >> all of what they make here on their own with use of machines and by purchasing the product to make the cigarettes are for their own personal use. >> reporter: in the end, the smoke shop decided to not fight city hall. court costs would have been devastating. the 8-month-old store will close in february. >> i may have to roll my own at

home. >> reporter: richard roth, cnn, new york. so check this out. you may have heard stories of crocodiles eating strange things. but this reptile from the outback tried to eat a lawn mower. the crock affectionately named elvis surprised rangers who were mowing around his enclosure at an australian reptile park. elvis grabbed the mower, and then he keeps pretty close watch over his new prize. kneeledle needless to say, it was not the usual day at work. >> it happened fast and it was scary. what i'm feeding him, when you're focused, then a crocodile is hanging off the end, my heart jumped out of my chest.

>> the rangers rescued the mower and elvis is doing just fine. a lot of have you been responded to our "talkback" question today. in a few hours the deadline expierce on claiming a $16.5 million lottery prize. the winning ticket was sold in iowa a year ago and so far it has gone unclaimed. brian says start three businesses. one for me and one for each of my two children. that's what he would do with the money. i would keep a couple million for myself. you can always earn the rest back with the principle. the rest would go to st. jude's children's hospital. maryann writes hire a new kong. this one needs a pink slap and slap on the back with a granny purse. whoa! i'm having just a few technical problems with my facebook page but continue to post your thoughts on

facebook.com/suzannecnn. many more comments later this hour. top of the hour. i'm randi kaye. let's get you up to speed. the political landscape is shifting for the republican presidential candidates just five days before the iowa caucuses. a new cnn/time/occ poll shows rick santorum rising. now third with 16%, gingrich at 14%. he may be the front-runner but mitt romney isn't predicting how he'll do in the iowa caucuses. romney started the day in cedar falls talking about jobs and the economy. in an interwith wolf blitzer he responded to complaints from newt gingrich. >> i don't know why he's so angry. this is a campaign about the things we believe in. i believe the country's being led in a very unfortunate and

destructive way by a president that doesn't really understand our economy or understand america. i can get america working again. that's why i'm running. activists say this video posted on youtube shows syrian security forces firing on protesters in a damascus suburb today. cnn cannot verify the authenticity of the video. we spoke to one journalist there who says syrian cities have been under military siege for days. >> they are trying to randomly put fear into the people and to this neighborhood in order to get them quiet and not getting out of the streets to demonstrate. the arab league tells cnn it has at least 75 monitors in syria and more are expected in the coming days.

somber music played over loud speakers as thousands gathered to memorialize north korea's kim jong-il for a second day in pyongyang. kim ruled the secretive nation for 17 years. he reportedly died of a heart attack two weeks ago. the u.s. is warn with aing iran not is disrupt a key oil shipping panel. the obama administration describes iran's threat to block the strait of hormuz as saber rattling. in 200915 million barrels of oil passed through the strait every day. any destruction could affect how much you pay for gasoline. the number of americans filing for unemployment benefits for the first time went up just before christmas. 15,000 more filed for unemployment than the previous week. last week 368,000 total filed

for jobless benefits. this is the site where christians believe jesus was born, the church of the nativity in bethlehem. palestinian police quickly broke up the fight and no one was seriously injured. hard work pays off. that's how rick sab torm explains his sudden surge in the polls in iowa just five days before the caucuses. santorum has been pounding the pavement for months visiting all 99 counties in iowa. he has stops in three cities today alone. cnn's joe johns is headed to santorum's next stop and he joins us now in the telephone. joe, is san form right? santorum right?

is he all about the hard work and pounding the pavement? >> reporter: that's a lot of it right now, randi. he has another event in tavern port tonight. he's engaged in a lot of hard work but it also helps of course that the competition has collapsed, a bunch of runners have stumbled out here. newt gingrich has collapsed in the polls and santorum was, frankly, due for a surge. he talked about it earlier today. >> iowa provides a spark. there's plenty of tinder on the ground that will start burnny these other states. if we become the clear alternative as i hope we will be in the caucus, the conservative alternative to mitt romney, there will be a lot of folks who will rally to our side in new hampshire. we'll have i believe a strong showing there. we aren't suggesting we'll win new hampshire. i haven't run one television ad in new hampshire but i think

we'll get a bump and have a strong showing there and go to north carolina and do even better. >> as you can see, he is thinking about it. the question is how does he capitalize on this surge. clearly trying to build organization as he goes. we always ask, what is a candidate's past out of iowa and onward. that's what he's thinking about now. we do know that there's some talk about buying ads, for example, in new hampshire. and trying to get into the primary in south carolina, which is a place where a lot of social conservatives speak the same language as the even gel cal voters here in iowa. so he's got a lot to think about right now but things are looking good for rick santorum. >> that's what he's counting on, support from the evangelicals. that's a crucial voting bloc for

him. >> absolutely, very crucial voting bloc. those voters go to the caucuses here in iowa. there's something like 60% of the people who when we went to caucuses last time around self-identified as evangelicals or social conservatives. so this is a group that has been looking for someone and they bounced around and that is one of the things that you can say has led to some of the volatility in the polls over the last several weeks and months. it looks like rick santorum, given how close we are to the caucuses, could end up the last candidate standing for those conservatives. >> so who does this hurt? when you look at bachmann or maybe even perry, do his numbers going up possibly hurt those who are also going after that social conservative vote? >> well, that's the thing. he's been very aware of it and some of the others have been aware of it, too. santorum has for a long time been mostly competing with rick

perry and michele bachmann. they've sort of all been going after that same bloc of social conservative votes and the question was, who among them was going to emerge as the favorite for these voters who turned out in droves and also contribute a lot of money. so it is good for him if he ends up at the top of that heap and then the second question is, what does he do about mitt romney who, you know, has so much money and so much organization that, you know, it is certainly not insurmountable for santorum at this stage but it is something to think about. >> joe johns on the road for us there in iowa, thank you. this reminder -- tune in next week for the country's first vote in the presidential race. america's choice 2012. live coverage of the iowa caucuses begins tuesday night, january 3rd, at 7:00 p.m. here's a rundown of the

stories over the next hour. iran wants to disrupt a key route for oil in the persian gulf. what it could mean for gas prices here. then -- activists say snipers are firing on people in syria despite the presence of arab league monitors. then, the 911 tapes are released from a shooting that killed members of a texas family on christmas day. despite today's reported increase in jobless claims, there have been some signs the economy will be a bit better next year. and later -- [ male announcer ] shopping for medicare coverage?

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the u.s. issues a stern warning to iran over its threats to block a keep oil shipping channel. an obama administration official says the u.s. will do whatever is necessary to keep the strait of hormuz open. this has the potential to turn into a big conflict over a small, but crucial, waterway. details now from foreign affairs correspondent jill dougherty. >> reporter: just 34 miles wide, the strait of more mhormuz is w one-third of oil carried by sea is shipped. iran is now threatening that not one drop of oil will pass through if the u.s. follows through on tough new sanctions aimed at stopping its nuclear program. but the u.s. is warning iran, any disruption will not be tolerated. >> any miscalculation could mean that we are drawn in to conflict and that would be a tragedy for the region and the world. >> reporter: world oil prices are spiking.

upping the tension, iranian naval vessels lurk near bee in the north iranian sea holding a ten-day military exercise. >> having the straits closed would be disastrous for the global economy. i don't think any u.s. president could let that stand. >> reporter: he's served as special advisor on iran at the pentagon. he says any attempt by tehran to close the strait of hormuz could mean war. >> i think the united states would be compelled to re-open the straits. that's something that we can do. our military's obviously much stronger than iran but it would mean attack being the iranian navy, attacking iranian ballistic missile and rocket sites. so that's war. >> reporter: he thinks it is likely iran is bluffing, trying to stop president obama from carrying out the new sanctions. the state department, too, is downplaying iran's threat, calling it an attempt to distract the world's attention from the nuclear program. but iran has been increasingly belligerent and unpredictable, including allegedly hatching a

plot to kill a saudi diplomat on u.s. soil. but just their threat alone to shut the strait of hormuz is making washington and the world nervous. >> jill dougherty joins us live now from the state department. jill, the u.s. calls this saber rattling by iran. is this just bluster or something more? >> at this point it appears according to everyone we're speaking with -- government and experts alike -- it is an attempt to intim date the president from carrying out these sanctions. after all, oil is a huge part of the iranian economy. their revenues, 80% roughly comes from oil so this could be very, very harmful to them if the sanctions -- not only by the united states, but by europe were carried out. so the understanding is that that's what they're trying to do, intimidate the president. but the problem is it is a very

unpredictable and unstable situation and that's where the danger comes in. >> when you look at the big picture here, it is possible the very sanctions designed to prevent the war may end up causing it actually. >> but but there is another side to this. if you look at it rationally, this does not make a lot of sense for iran to do, because it would be, as experts have been saying, shooting itself in the foot, because that oil that comes from iran goes through the strait of hormuz, goes to countries like china and china is a crucial client of iran. so by doing that, by cutting off the oil, it could really hurt itself. >> jill dougherty for us, thank you very much. in syria, activists say this video posted on youtube shows security forces firing on protesters in a damascus suburb by the city is being visited by

arab league monitor. the monitors have spread out to on the other hand syrian cities plagued with violence. cnn could not verify the you authenticity of the video. we spoke with one journalist describing what it is like in the middle of that war zone. >> been traveling to syria in the last six months for four times already, and this time i think a lot of things change because people and the free syrian army is getting well organized and people stopped just to demonstrate peacefully. the people know that the point of no return has crossed and they will fight to vfight for

their victory and security. >> cnn's monitoring the situation from cairo. what is the latest sm. >> reporter: randi, again and again we hear more reports from inside syria of cities where these observers are going to where we're still hearing that crashdowns are ensuing. you reference some video earlier that we saw online purporting to show a crackdown going on in the damascus suburb as of arab league observers were arriving. in this video you hear heavy gunfire in the distance, you see what appears to be syrian security forces. we've heard of multiple deaths, activists told us multiple deaths occurred in that city today and we know that observers from the arab league officials that observers did go to duma today. also the city of homs, yesterday we kept seeing video, even though monitors are there, we kept seeing video purporting to

show monitors walking around. you would hear gunfire in the distance and it just really b l bolsters these claims saying that no matter the fact that these observers are in the country, fanning out across country to different cities, this brutal crackdown by bashar al assad continues and and the v activists and residents we say if this is going on when these monitors are here, when is it ever going to stop? they've been possibly calling for the intervention in some way of the u.n. >> it doesn't sound like people there have much faith that anything will change. some of the neighborhoods have been hit very hard. others seem like they have been really untouched. is this turning into a sectarian battle? >> reporter: the fear from day one is that if this turned into

all-out civil war, it would take this nasty sectarian bend. more and more it seems to be drawing more along those lines. when you're talking about homs, that's a predominantly sunni city. bashar al assad comes from a minority sect. so these battle lines have been drawn. in homs you have more and more military defectors. thee military defectors are predominantly from the sunni sect, so that's the fear, will this erupt along sectarian lines. the indications right now, the signs are that it is being drawn along sectarian lines, and once that -- if that continues to happen despite the presence of these monitors, where does that go? it doesn't look good for syria and that's why there is so much concern about what's going on there. randi? >> terrible situation there. mohammed, thank you. we are just hours away from a critical deadline that could

make someone a multi-millionaire. a $16.5 million. lottery jackpot will expire if no one produces the winning ticket. it would be the second multi-million dollar lotto jackpot to go unclaimed this week. a $77 million prize expired in iowa on monday. the numbers were drawn exactly one year ago. we want to know what would you do with 16.5 million. i am having some technical problems with my facebook page so do us a favor, post your thoughts on suzanne malveaux's facebook page, facebook.com/suzannecnn. we'll have some of your comments later this hour. of sugar a da, you'll save 100 calories a day. that could help you lose up to 10 pounds in a year. and now get even more with splenda® essentials,

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seven family members were found dead in an apartment christmas day in grapevine, texas. police believe this man was the shooter. he was also dead at the scene. you can hear the shooter on newly released 911 tapes. david mattingly has been following this for us and has more details about the call. >> police have had these tapes for dies, listening to them over and over again. they were able to hear the very beginning where they hear someone whispering help but they weren't quite able to make out what came next until they got some new software in and that software gave them a whole new perspective on what was on that 911 tape. it is the voice of the killer and it is disturbing to listen to. if you want to not pay attention to this, this would be a good time to stop listening. we've written out the words because it is still very hard to

follow so let's listen. >> hello, grapevine 911. do you need help? are you sick? hello? one moment. that's all you hear. it is so quiet. police believe he made that after he had gone through the apartment, killed his estranged wife, his teenage daughter, his teenage son, his brother-in-law, their sister-in-law, their child as well. >> it almost sounds like he shot himself before he called. >> he was shot in the head. police may he may have committed suicide -- pulled the triller after that call. >> but he obviously didn't want to tell them who he want or where he was calling from.

>> in fact, police are starting to believe that it's possible he was trying to cover up this crime because they believe he had -- well, they say they went this and they found two handguns. they believe he brought two hand gunts wi guns with him to carry out these murders. they found one gun in the hands of the slain brother-in-law but found ballistics that showed he wasn't the one doing the shooting. so it is possible that this man decided somehow he was going to cover this up and make it look like his brother-in-law was either involved or responsible for the murders of this family. >> it was so tragic and so creepy at the same time, david mattingly, thank you. it has been a tough year for the economy but there are some economic bright spots. looking ahead to 2012, we'll talk to an economist about that.

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stocks are in positive territory right now but where do they stand for the year that ends this weekend? alison kosik joins me now from the new york stock exchange. so where does the s&p 500 stand for 2011? >> reporter: okay, randi. so the s&p 500 is back in positive territory for the year but just barely. it looks like it is really going to come right down to the wire on this one. either way it goes, up or down, it is really likely to be the smallest yearly change for the s&p 500 since 1970. as for the dow, it's done better. it's up about 6% year to date but we like to look at the s&p 500 because it is the broader index, the one vesters should really focus it on because it most closely traction or 401(k)s or retirement accounts. chances are those are looking pretty darn flat this year.

so peek or not to peek at that portfolio at the end of the year is the question. >> i'm sure you're also keeping a close watch on the stock winners and losers. >> reporter: yes. so we put together some of the winners and losers. the best performer in the s&p 500 is cabot oil and gas. the stock has more than doubled in price this year because the natural gas industry is booming in the u.s. el paso corporation is also a natural gas company. mastercard comes in at number four. that's kind of an encouraging one because it shows that consumer spending is up as the economy recovers. you just hope everybody will pay their bills on time. you flip the coin over, we get the worst performers. first solar. solar stocks have taken a beating. some solar companies have gone bankrupt as the price of solar panels collapsed. memc comes in fourth on that list. it also got caught up in the solar decline as well.

who can forget netflix. yes, netflix took quite the beating this year following its pr disasters over the summer. the stock was trading above $3 in july. today -- under $70. it is tough if you own that stock. it is trading under $70. >> how are the markets doing right now. >> markets are holding their own now. the dow is up 100 points. all the major averages are in the green after the big sell-off from yesterday. but a lot of these moves are being accentuated by the fact that few people are trading so a lot of the trading right now is kind of holiday time trading. but at least we're in the green in a strong way. >> all right, here's to 2012, as we say good-bye to 2011 thank you. it's been a blogloomy few ys

for the economy. 20 economists surveyed by cnn now say we only have a 20% chance of falling into a second recession next year, whereas three months ago they were estimating it was 30%. despite today's increase in first-time jobless claims, we've had several weeks of claims falling. the week before last jobless claims were at the lowest level since 2008. joining me now, president of opt o mall capital management, ryan mack. so what do you think? how will the economy fare in 2012? >> i think 2012 is going to be defined by an economy of less risk projecting a slow rate of growth in gdp. but i'll take it as long as it is sustainable. for quite some time now we've had an insustainable norm that was essentially individuals overborrowing and not being able to pay the debt off.

now it is less risk. corporations are taking less risk and hiring individuals and are doing it by keeping more capital reserves. even the government's trying to figure out ways to cut spending. even individuals. despite retail sales numbers, we still have a slightly higher savings rate than we've seen over the last few years. mitigating this risk. >> talk about housing prices. some economists are saying prices will finally drop a few more percentage points than stabilize next year, perhaps even hit the bottom. others are saying it may be another two to five years. >> i definitely feel that housing -- we're in it for the long haul in terms of seeing any uptick in prices. the level of shadow inventory is still relatively high. excess in supply. 1 out of 4 individuals have homes under water. 1 out of 5 individuals have in

2007 been over 90 days late on their payment so we still have a very dismal market in the economy. but on the other side -- plus tighter credit requirements. fannie and freddie are still requiring individuals to have a 7 762 fico score just to get into a piece of property. we're going to be more responsible and more people who purchase homes today are those individuals more likely to keep those homes for the long run. >> when we talk about getting the economy back on track, what's the most important thing that needs to happen? >> individuals need to try to retrain themselves into different industries that are hiring. in the optic industry, it is 2.5% unemployment rate.

mathematics jobs are increasing four times the rate of unemployment. however, the u.s. is -- out of the 29 developed countries, we're 27th in terms of bachelor's degrees awarded in science, technology and math. if you're laid off, find a new industry to get back into the job industry, create your own company and create your own opportunity. then mitigate your risk in the most responsible way. it is going to be slower but we will get back on track. >> chugging along. thank you, ryan mack. victims of afghanistan are not on the battlefield. why girls an women are being tortured and what some are doing to try and stop it.

in afghanistan, police discovered a recently married 15-year-old girl beaten and locked in a basement. her story is part after disturbing trend in the country. cnn's becky anderson reports. >> reporter: this is 15-year-old sahar. afghan police say they found her badly beaten, her hair ripped from her head, her fingernails removed and starving. she was found locked in the basement of her in laws' house, allegedly because she refused to be forced into prostitution. police say they're waiting for her to fully recover to learn more. the in-laws have been arrested but police say the husband fled.

her story's just one of many cases of violence against women in afghanistan. >> women have actually made a lot of progress in afghanistan in the last decade. since the discussions of the u.s. withdrawal and foreign troops withdrawal, violence has started increasing and we have to pay attention to that, not only as it impacts women but as it tells us the story of what is happening in afghanistan. >> reporter: in another case, a 1-year-old afghan woman was sentenced to 12 years in prison for adultery after she reported being raped by her cousin's husband. it was reported that she had agreed to marry her attacker to be released from prison. her story attracted international attention. she was layered freed after president hamid karzai intervened. the afghanistan human rights commission reported 1,026 cases of violence against women in the

second quarter of this year, and more than 2,700 cases reported in 2010. and according to a recent objectioxfam report, 87% of afghan women reported being abused sexually, psychologically or being forced into marriage. >> what is behind this resurgence of violence against women in afghanistan? an organization helps afghan women recover from effects of war. tales of violence against women in afghanistan are so disturbing, we just heard that one girl's story. how common is this? >> well, this particular story really tells a larger story of what happens to trafficking or trafficking of women and girls into prostitution. this is a part of her symptoms. in muslim countries it happens usually through marriage. a girl is being married off and it is her husband and his family

who prostitute her. in western countries this usually happens through boyfriends or friends or promise of employment. now the torture process is part of a breaking of a woman or of a girl, as it is called. every woman -- every person is broken in different ways. sometimes by threats, sometimes by deprivation of food and sometimes and in this case it is a very severe case of torture. and this is usually a pattern of what happens to women and girls who are kidnapped into trafficking and to being prostituted, in other words. the issue in afghanistan is the future of afghan women and girls. when we are in the process of negotiating peace agreement with the taliban. violence against women is always happening in all over the world from western countries to non-western countries. temperatures the deterrent against it that stops it. it is legal punishments, it is any kind of punitive actually that deterrent that stops a man from -- or woman from doing such violence against women. and so that's the scary part of what's happening to afghan

women, that we are at the risk, serious risk, of losing all that has been accomplished in the last ten years in terms of legal protection of women, in terms of political representation of women, in terms of freedom to be in the street and their ability to work. rather than seeing that as only dangerous vis-a-vis afghan women we need to see that as seriously dangerous in terms of the future of afghanistan. >> it sounds as though almost that the women of course don't know their rights so they don't know that they can protect themselves. >> well, i mean remember, afghan women came from literally one of the worst regimes in history vis-a-vis the taliban, during the taliban times. so when i say a lot has been accomplished in the last ten years, actually they came from under zero of status with women being forced. we have to remember, women were forced to actually stay in their rooms in their homes with even their windows were painted and

not allowed to go to school or anything like that. now a lot has been progress since them. my experience with women international we worked with about 100,000 women. i've seen women promised to be married at 6, widowed at 15, single mothers at 16 and they now have $30,000 in their bank account works in businesses and things like that. there is progress, we are just at risk of losing that progress. >> what can be done in the end for these women? >> not compromising women's rights as we are in the process of negotiating with the taliban. it is almost a giving up on the possibilities of protecting women and honestly, except for secretary clinton who has been the only sad manhattan supporter of protecting women's rights in terms of a governmental level,

there is a serious, serious worry about women not being included in the negotiating table with the taliban. they are not being included at protecting the legal rights as we are about to in the process of negotiating peace agreement and in the process of withdrawing u.s. troops. and so we need to look at the protection of afghan women as not only a responsibility but a must for actually a long-lasting peace in afghanistan. this is not a luxury. this is a necessity to protect the future and peace in afghanistan. >> nice to have you on the program. thank you. >> pleasure. thank you. from losing an eighth grade election to losing a child. rick santorum shares personal reflr reflections in a red chair interview with cnn. a u.most aide mired men --

for sixth, newt gingrich and donald trump. warren buffett, billy graham and we'll tell you the top two most amired men after the break.

we told you about some of the most admired men this year according to the "usa today"/gallup poll. number two is former president george w. bush. he lost the top spot in 2008

when president obama took office. president obama is the most admired man in 2011 for the fourth year in a row. rick santorum attributes his rise in the polls to hard work. santorum is now in third place less than a week before the iowa caucuses. the presidential candidate recently shared some personal reflexes and experiences from losing an eighth grade election to losing a child. >> when i was younger i ran for class officer. i lost. it was quite a scarring experience. i lost for eighth grade vice president. the girl i ran against was much nicer, much cuter than i was. that scarred me. i never ran again for office until i ran for united states congress so that tells you how deeply wounding that eighth grade experience was. >> hi -- i'm rick santorum. i am the father of seven children with my wife, karen. we are from western pennsylvania. i served in the house of representatives for four years and in the united states senate

for 12. and now i'm running for president of the united states. my dad came to this country when he was 7 years of age from italy. my grandfather brought him over to johnstown, pennsylvania, right outside of johnstown pennsylvania. it was actually a little coal mining town owned by the company. my gand father used to say they lived in a company town, got paid with company stamps to shop in the country store. i remember visiting that house. they lived a quarter-mile walk for any fresh water, outhouse, the whole nine yards. really grew up obviously very humble roots in the coal mines of western pennsylvania. karen and i have been married 1 years. we have had eight children, seven of whom still survive. we lost a little boy who was our fourth child. he was born early in the morning, 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, lived a couple of hours and when the morning came we

brought him home to bury him. he was buried that next day. our kids were very young when gabriel was born. i think our oldest was 5, and so most of the kids we will really don't remember gabriel very much. one of the thinks that we thought was really important was for them to see their brother, to know that he existed, to know that his life had meaning, that there is loss, and that every life is precious. then we have a little 3-year-old little girl who's our special child. she was born with a genetic disorder and is -- we were told that she would not live a few days. she's now 3 1/2 years old and is just a miracle every day and really in many respects the center of family life. my little girl isabella 3 years old. had some surgery today. she's doing fine. i just want to send to her a

little "i love you." i'm taking the red eye tomorrow. >> she has a disorder which is incompatible we were told with life. we're showing that that's not only not true but it is really the center of our life. not every life is meant to accomplish great things in terms of economics. in terms of utility that some would see to our society, but the utility of these children in showing the dignity of human life and the pure love that they emit an how they really -- i always say bella has gentled my condition. some say santorum is so intense -- he should have seen me before she was born. >> this reminder -- tune in next week for the country's first vote in the presidential rate. america's choice 2012, live coverage of the iowa caucuses begins tuesday night, january 3rd at 7:00 eastern right here on cnn. forget leap years, a short

february an your birthday falling on a different day of the week each year. researchers say they have a better way to mark time. a calendar consistent from year to year. we told you about the most admired man? the "usa today"/gallup poll also released a list of the most admired women. condoleezza rice is listed at number five. four, sarah palin. was third last year but got knocked out of the position by first lady michelle bomb who is third on the list this year. we'll tell you hot top two are next. [ female announcer ] lactaid milk is easy to digest.

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number two spot of the most admired women. this is her had tenth year in the runner-up spot. most admired woman this year -- secretary of state hillary clinton. how would you feel if your birthday fell on a wednesday forever? or if halloween was always on a saturday or a tuesday? well, two scientists are proposing a new calendar that keeps each date on the same day of the week from year to year. chad meyers taking a look at this. can you explain how this is all going to work? >> if it happens? >> it is not part of the end of the world. do you know what day christmas was on last year? >> well, it was on a saturday? >> what about next year? tuesday, right. because there is a leap year. they put another day in there.

next yeesh -- two sicientists said who do we make a calendar given? they took out the leap year and one day of the year. you say it's 365. if you take 364 and divide it by seven you get an even number, that date -- your christmas, your fourth of july, would always be on the same date. eventually we'd kind of get out of whack a little bit but instead of putting a leap year in every four years every once in a while like five or six years they'd put in a leap week. by doing that you would always keep your christmas day on a saturday or sunday, your new year's on same day, saturday or sun. they do that we a 365 day a year year. still seven days a week but no leap year an every week in december or once in a while they'd give us maybe and extra

week off and that would be the leap week. is it ever going to happen? i really don't think so. i really don't think there's ever going to get that done. >> if they did, i would like my birthday to be on a saturday. >> exactly. at least this way you get to rotate it around every once in a while. >> if you look at what's happening in samoa, they want to just skip friday? >> they're going to lose a day. it's going to work because of -- what side of the date line they're on right now, they're on what they consider to be the wrong side of the date line to do busy in australia -- this is how the line goes. they are going to move it again, samoa's going to move it tonight and by tomorrow it will actually be saturday. here's american samoa, not

include. they're going to take themselves and move themselves to the same day as new zealand and australia. >> i'm sure we'd all like to skwip a week. >> they're just going to lose a day. don't know if anybody's going to get paid. thanks a lot. a huge lottery prize has to be claimed in a few hours in iowa or it goes back into the pot. you are responding -- what would you do with the $16.5 million if you held that winning ticket? your responses are just ahead. >> if it were me, i'd invest it. >> i wouldn't want to work another day. at least not for somebody else. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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checking stories our affiliates are covering across country -- a marine who managed to avoid getting shot in afghanistan and iraq is shot three times in a robbery in south florida. he actually took the bullets out with his own fingers. the good news -- he is doing okay now. >> i go to iraq and afghanistan multiple times and i haven't been shot or blown up. and i'm here at home in florida and here i am riding away in an ambulance with a bunch of gunshot wounds. check out this crazy video out of centennial, colorado. this is a guy going on a rampage trying to find cars to run into. he totalled this woman's car,

then hit five others. he even tried to hit a few people. luckily no one was hurt. the guy's now in jail on $50,000 bond. a lot of you have been responding to our "talkback" question. in a few hours the deadline will expire on claiming a $16.5 million lottery prize. the winning ticket was sold in iowa one year ago today and so far it has gone unclaimed. we asked what would you do with all those millions. robert says -- i'd pay off my credit cards, student loans, buy a new car, remodel my house, the list goes on and on. -- party every day! buy a bunch of stuff i don't need! doesn't sound like a good idea. judy says -- the obvious, pay bills, get kids' future set in stone, give to some great organizations and